By Nia Williams and Rami Ayyub
REVELSTOKE, British Columbia (Reuters) -Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday paid tribute to a young firefighter killed while battling a forest blaze in British Columbia, as wildfires continue to rage across the country and the western province requested an extra 1,000 international firefighters.
The B.C. General Employees’ Union announced the death of the firefighter in a statement late on Thursday. The woman had been tackling a fire outside the town of Revelstoke, around 310 miles (500 km) northeast of Vancouver, the union said.
Revelstoke Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the woman, 19, had been clearing brush in a remote area where a small fire had started. She lost contact with her team and was discovered caught under a fallen tree. The woman was airlifted to hospital but succumbed to her injuries, the police statement said.
“The news from British Columbia – that one of the firefighters bravely battling wildfires has lost her life – is heartbreaking. At this incredibly difficult time, I’m sending my deepest condolences to her family, her friends, and her fellow firefighters,” Trudeau said on Twitter.
British Columbia Premier David Eby said in a statement the death was a “tremendous loss for everyone involved with the BC Wildfire Service at an already challenging time”.
Canada is on track for its worst-ever wildfire season with fires also raging in large swathes of eastern Canada, while wildfire emissions have hit record highs.
In Quebec, the Canadian military is being deployed to help with emergency evacuations in the north of the province, federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said on Friday.
In British Columbia, some 2,000 firefighters are battling more than 350 fires.
Authorities have requested an extra 1,000 international firefighters to help tackle blazes that have burned 1.2 million hectares of forest in the province so far this year, far above the 10-year average of 76,000 hectares.
Lack of rain in recent months has left much British Columbia parched, in what officials say is an “unprecedented” level of drought for this early in the year.
Hot weather is forecast to persist across much of the province and thunderstorms are likely to bring more lightning strikes that will spark more fires, Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for BC Wildfire, said in a media briefing on Thursday.
“We have seen more fire on the landscape in terms of number of starts than in previous years at this point in time,” Chapman said, adding there have been 51,000 lightning strikes in the last week alone.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Nia WilliamsEditing by Peter Graff and Aurora Ellis)
